Augustine: City of God [ 1 ]

1. Augustine: City of God[1] St. Augustine (354-430 A.D.)

2. [2] Roman Empire, ca 395 A.D.

3. Augustine: City of God[3] • Background: • A.D. 410, Alaric and the Goths sacked the city of Rome, very destructively. (This event is generally regarded as the beginning of the end for the Roman Empire in the west.) • Augustine says that the various pagans in Rome blamed the Christians for this disaster. He intends here to be replying to their “blasphemies and errors.” • In the process, he composed 25 Books, ranging widely, including many bits of considerable philosophical interest. • To us it is of interest as the first major effort by a first-rate mind to address the subject of politics vis-a-vis a monotheistic, and therefore, as we might put it, a monopolistic religion, • which claims that our first loyalty should be to God • - which is to say: that religion’s idea of god, as against all the others.

4. Augustine: City of God[4] • The idea that there are “two cities”, one of god, the other of man, can be traced to an incident in the Christian New Testament, in which Christ is asked by the Philistines: [Gospel of St. Mark, Ch. 12, vs. 14-17): • Is it lawful to give tribute to Caesar; or shall we not give it? • He [Christ,] saith to them: Why tempt you me? Bring me a penny that I may see it. And they brought it him. And he saith to them: Whose is this image and inscription? They say to him, Caesar's. • And Jesus answering, said to them: Render therefore to Caesar the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are God's. • And they marvelled at him.” • these verses especially are the source for the view generally accepted by Christians that • the state has a legitimate place in human affairs, despite the fundamental superiority and authority of the church. • Question: whether Augustine succeeds here, and more generally whether any such religion can do so.

5. Augustine: City of God[5] • “The glorious city of God is my theme” • The City of God: “a city surpassingly glorious, ... obtains, by virtue of its excellence, final victory and perfect peace.” • Project: Defend it against those who prefer their own gods • [Question and comments: ‘prefer their own gods’?? • (1) ‘gods’ is speaking loosely - Augustine believes that there is but one. • (2) And it’s hardly surprising if people prefer their beliefs to other people’s • (3) Augustine assumes the truth of Christianity • (4) So: why should non-Christians pay any attention?? - From Our point of view, The City of God is about the general relation between religion and politics/morals.

6. Augustine: City of God[6] • Points about Monopolistic Religions • The Hebrew version has the one god [‘Jehovah’ saying “Thou shalt have no other gods before Me” • (1) [like Augustine, the Hebrew Bible uses the plural loosely...] • - for the claim is that god is the “creator of all” etc. and of unlimited power, and of those, there’s only room for one • (2) (logically: suppose there were two, and they disagreed?) • (3) - The first thing people in positions of power do is solidify their power-bases • - this means eliminating competitors - one way or another • [not necessarily by force - but in plenty of historical cases actually] • (certainly including religions, even when they profess to be all for peace..) • (4) [Why force? - because reasoning isn’t going to cut it - as we’ll see...]

7. Augustine: City of God[7] • One of the selling points of the Christian religion: Exalting the Humble • “ how great is the virtue of humility, which raises us, not by a quite human arrogance, but by a divine grace, above all earthly dignities that totter on this shifting scene. ...” • [Yup: there’s humility for you!] • [Recall Aristotle on democracy: the poor, given the chance, will exploit the rich. • [It’s a cool move to do this, dialectically - inverting the values of pride and humility... Here are the humble lording it over the proud ... ] • Augustine denounces the Romans who took refuge in Christian churches • [“in the sack of the city they were open sanctuary for all who fled to them, whether Christian or Pagan.... ... Therefore ought they to give God thanks...”] • - only to turn against the Christians when the Goths departed • [He seems to be accusing them of ingratitude!]

8. Augustine: City of God[8] • Re: ingratitude • - (toward whom? • (a) the Christian church (yes) • (b) God (no) • No - because, obviously, these people don’t believe in the Christian god’s existence at all. So they can’t be “grateful” to “him”! • - That’s a subtle logical point that people of Other faiths tend to overlook... • - with much resultant grief ....

9. Augustine: City of God[9] • One of the professional hazards of deism: the Problem of Evil • If God is so great, why are things the way they are? • e.g. (1) why allow the Goths to sack Rome? and • (2) Why was divine compassion extended even to the ungodly and ungrateful? • [the “love thine enemies” syndrome?] • “Why, but because it was the mercy of Him who daily “maketh His sun to rise on the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust.” • [Note that if this is a real question, this is not much of an answer! - the question, after all, is - why would godhave mercy on the bad guys?

10. Augustine: City of God[10] • [why have mercy on the bad guys?, continued] • - especially when they are bad by god’s standards? • - Oh, by the way: why are there any bad guys?? • - That’s another part of the problem • Further answer: well, he invites them to repent ... • [- for sport? Is a universe like that more fun for the Deity?] • Further answer: in the Hereafter, in the “world to come”, the righteous will get their payoff (and likewise the unrighteous....) • [Further question: But if things are so great in the “other world”, then why wait??] • - These are puzzles to “outsiders” • “Insiders” tend not to be puzzled by this. • But maybe they should be - Outsiders are puzzled that insiders aren’t puzzled ...!

11. Augustine: City of God[11] • re the goods and ills of this life: • “ God has willed that these should be common to both the just and the unjust” • - “that we might not too eagerly covet the things which wicked men are seen equally to enjoy, nor shrink with an unseemly fear from the ills which even good men often suffer” • [Question: Is this really good thinking on the part of the deity? Normally, you’d think that rewarding the qualities you want and punishing the ones you don’t would be the way to go ... • But Augustine’s move is to get us to think it doesn’t matter... • [A convenient axiom for monotheistic religions: “The Lord works in mysterious ways, his wonders to perform.” ... right.! • [You can get away with a lot that way!] • - (remember the Ring of Gyges? • .... An invisible God doesn’t have to answer the questioners ....!)

12. Augustine: City of God[12] • More than one can play: • “As for those who insult over them in their trials, and when ills befall them say, “Where is thy God ?” we may ask them where their gods are when they suffer the very calamities for the sake of avoiding which they worship their gods, or maintain they ought to be worshipped; for the family of Christ is furnished with its reply: our God is everywhere present, wholly everywhere; not confined to any place.” [p. 71] • [Augustine seems unaware that he has fallen into the trap. If his god is indeed “everywhere present”, then why didn’t he help out? If their gods are not so, at least they have some sort of excuse!]

13. Augustine: City of God[13] • Augustine justifies (?) Torture: • e.g.: “So that possibly the torture which taught them that they should set their affections on a possession they could not lose • - was more useful than those possessions which, without any useful fruit at all, disquieted and tormented their anxious owners....” • [Who says it’s “not useful”? Maybe I really liked my Jaguar!] • This “possession they cannot lose” is the ability to put up with pain, frustration] • [Hmmm . Does this justify inflicting those things on us in the first place?] • “He can be present unperceived, and be absent without moving” • - another handy feature of the deity....!

14. Augustine: City of God[14] • Note: Augustine is famous for this tactic re the Problem of Evil: “evil isn’t really real. It’s just less good” • A’s idea: In fact, it’s merely “less real” - since all reality, being invented by God, is of course good... • [Q: Should we buy that? • [A: No! • [Pain, e.g., is equally real as pleasure. • - Only - it hurts! • [A deity who can’t see that point is not a very competent Guardian...! • It’s very hard to shake off the Problem of Evil ....

15. Augustine: City of God[15] • “For why in your calamities do you complain of Christianity, • unless because you desire to enjoy your luxurious license unrestrained, and to lead an abandoned and profligate life without the interruption of any uneasiness or disaster?” • [Q: Well, why not?? • [- “luxurious license” might be fun!] • [If Gus wants to be a hair-shirt masochist, fine - but don’t offload that stuff on us! • A. says: “your purpose rather is to run riot in an endless variety of sottish pleasures, and thus to generate from your prosperity a moral pestilence which will prove a thousandfold more disastrous than the fiercest enemies....” • Like Plato, A. argues that the life of pleasure has no measure • [... But the intelligent hedonist knows when to quit....] • [Augustine doesn’t try to be too precise about the “disasters” in question ... • “And that you are yet alive is due to God, who spares you that you may be admonished to repent and reform your lives.” • [gee, thanks?]

16. Augustine: City of God[16] • The “rise, progress, and end of these two cities” • the peace of unjust men is not worthy to be called peace in comparison with the peace of the just. • [hmmm - why not? - will their consciences bother them? ...] • “nevertheless, inasmuch as they are deservedly and justly, miserable, they are by their very misery connected with order.... • “ Hmmm?? [Maybe this: if p is the right principle, and p implies that Smith deserves to be miserable, then his misery is “connected” with the right order (?)] Anyway: we can agree that evil people deserve to be miserable - no? • “He must endeavor to get his neighbor to love God, since he is ordered to love his neighbor as himself.” • Questions: (1) what does God’s “ordering” it have to do with it? • (2)Is this true? (think of Aristotle’s points...)

17. Augustine: City of God[17] • He ought to make this endeavor in behalf of his wife, his children, his household, all within his reach,even as he would wish his neighbor to do the same for him if he needed it • [This goes in the direction of the “golden rule” • [It’s more than a nod in the direction of Social Contract ...] • Two Great Moral Rules: • consequently he will be at peace, or in well-ordered concord, with all men, as far as in him lies. • And this is the order of this concord: • that a man,in the first place, injure no one • and, in the second, do good to every one he can reach.

18. Augustine: City of God[18] • “Primarily, therefore, his own household is his care, for the law of nature and of society gives him readier access to them and greater opportunity of serving them. “ • “Now, if any provide not for his own, and specially for those of his own house, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an infidel.” • [Q1: ‘denied the faith”?] • [Q2: how does this stack up against loving “thy neighbor as thyself”?] • This is the origin of domestic peace, or the well-ordered concord of those in the family who rule and those who obey. • they who care for the rest rule - the husband the wife, the parents the children, the masters the servants • and they who are cared for obey - the women their husbands, the children their parents, the servants their masters. ... • [uh, huoh ... like Aristotle there...]

19. Augustine: City of God[19] • What produces peace, and what discord, between heavenly and earthly cities • the things necessary for this mortal life are used by both kinds of men and families alike • but each has its own peculiar and widely different aim in using them: • The earthly city: does not live by faith, but seeks an earthly peace, and the end it proposes, in the well-ordered concord of civic obedience and rule, is the combination of men's wills to attain the things which are helpful to this life • The heavenly city, or rather the part of it which sojourns on earth and lives by faith, makes use of this peace only because it must • “until this mortal condition which necessitates it shall pass away”... [?] • Consequently, so long as it lives like a captive and a stranger in the earthly city • though it has already received the promise of redemption -- it makes no scruple to obey the laws of the earthly city, whereby the things necessary for the maintenance of this mortal life are administered [is this “unto Caesar”? But it’s really unto the “city” ..] • and thus, as this life is common to both cities, so there is a harmony between them in regard to what belongs to it. • [why is this a “consequence”? - This suggests that “life” is the source of the relevant norms - not, say, god.]

20. Augustine: City of God[20] • [Religion and the “earthly city”: tolerance?] • the celestial city, on the other hand, knew that one God only was to be worshipped • it has “come to pass” [?] • that the two cities could not have common laws of religion, • the heavenly city has been compelled in this matter to dissent • and to become obnoxious to those who think differently • and to stand the brunt of their anger and hatred and persecutions • - except in so far as the minds of their enemies have been alarmed by the multitude of the Christians and quelled by the manifest protection God accorded to them. • [there’s a lot of us - so we must be right?]

21. Augustine: City of God[21] • This heavenly city calls citizens out of all nations, • gathers together a society of pilgrims of all languages • not scrupling about diversities in the manners, laws, and institutions whereby earthly peace is secured and maintained • but recognizing that, however various these are, they all tend to one and the same end of earthly peace.

22. Augustine: City of God[22] • Religion, the “earthly city”, tolerance, and the Donatists ... • “ they all tend to one and the same end of earthly peace.” • -- Well -- Do they? • Augustine spent a good bit of time contending with the Donatists • [They held that the Christians who had cooperated with the Roman authorities should not be “admitted back into the fold”] • This would create extremely exclusive sect-based groups • Augustine was against this • In the end, he invoked the help of the State in suppressing the Donatists • He “argued in favor of imperial edicts, against paganism and heresy”; • coercion was justified as a rebuke of religious dissent and as • “a kind of paternal correction” • [from Plato to Nato, ch. on Augustine by Janet Coleman]

23. Augustine: City of God[23] • Augustinian Tolerance • “... far from rescinding and abolishing diversities - the “Heavenly City” even preserves and adopts them • - so long only as no hindrance to the worship of the one supreme and true God is thus introduced.” • [meaning what? • - Suppose that the fact of disagreement is itself regarded as a “hindrance to worship”? ... ] • Even the heavenly city, therefore, while in its state of pilgrimage, avails itself of the peace of earth, • desires and maintains a common agreement among men regarding the acquisition of the necessaries of life • and makes this earthly peace bear upon the peace of heaven; • for this alone can be truly called and esteemed the peace of the reasonable creatures, consisting as it does in the perfectly ordered and harmonious enjoyment of God and of one another in God. • [And what about those with a different god, or none?? Apparently he thought that Christianity was “reasonable” in a way that other religions aren’t .....]

24. Augustine: City of God[24] • When we shall have reached that peace, this mortal life shall give place to one that is eternal • our body shall be no more this animal body which by its corruption weighs down the soul • but a spiritual body feeling no want, and in all its members subjected to the will • In its pilgrim state the heavenly city possesses this peace by faith • and by this faith it lives righteously when it refers every good action towards God and man to the attainment of that peace • for the life of the city is a social life. • [is the heavenly life anti-social?] • the supreme good of the city of God is perfect and eternal peace, not “such as mortals pass into and out of” by birth and death, • but the peace of freedom from all evil, in which the immortals ever abide ... • [Q: how does this supposed kind of peace relate to the other kind??]

25. Augustine: City of God[25] • [Professor Coleman summarizes his general thust as follows:] • (1) “No earthly state can ensure security from internal and external attack; • (2) but government is nevertheless ordained by God - • “man without God must always be a victim of ignorance, fear, irrational self-love and lack of social and self-control” • [Point: True. And what about man with “god”??] • “Enlightenment” is viewed as a matter of religious insight • Whose insight? • [Coleman’s summary continues: • “It is a consequence of Adam’s sin which mankind inherits, [?] that man requires government, private property, coercive laws, all to keep the peace that man so dearly seeks but cannot achieve on his own.” • [suggesting that really good men would not need government ...] • “The civil authority can never be destroyed; it is divinely ordained for men on their way to a hoped-for salvation after all states and all history... • [- in short, a bad state is better than no state...]

26. Augustine: City of God[26] • “True Justice entails the worship of the True god” • where there is not true justice there can be no assemblage of men associated by a common acknowledgment of right • and therefore there can be no people, as defined by Scipio or Cicero • “there is no republic where there is no justice.” • [Q: what does it mean for there to “be” justice? What is it for justice to “exist”?] • Further, justice is that virtue which gives every one his due • Where, then, is the justice of man, when he deserts the true God? • Is this to give every one his due? • Or is he who keeps back a piece of ground from the purchaser, and gives it to a man who has no right to it, unjust, while he who keeps back himself from the God who made him, and serves wicked spirits, is just? • [comment: hmmm - offhand, why not?]

27. Augustine: City of God[27] • justice transcends religion: • “ Of the peace which is enjoyed by the people that are alienated from God, and the use made of it by the people of God in the time of its pilgrimage.” • “Blessed is the people whose God is the Lord.” Miserable, therefore, is the people which is alienated from God. • Yet even this people has a peace of its own which is not to be lightly esteemed, though, indeed, it shall not in the end enjoy it, because it makes no good use of it before the end. • But it is our interest that it enjoy this peace meanwhile in this life; • for as long as the two cities are commingled, we also enjoy the peace of Babylon. [see footnote about this:

28. Augustine: City of God[28] • In October 539 BCE, the Persian king Cyrus took Babylon, • Cyrus allowed the Jews (who were exiled in Babylonia) to return home. • Cyrus describes how he conquers the old city. (namely: bloodlessly, and to general acclaim.) • At the end of his story, Cyrus tells that he "returned the images of the sanctuaries to return home". This means that he gave the statues back to the temples of the subject people; the Babylonians had captured these imagines and kept them as hostages. • This is the first known statement that the inhabitants of a state were free to worship the gods they wanted. • The Persian empire was remarkably free of religious persecution • Cyrus anticipating Frederick the Great: "In my kingdom, everyone has the right to seek blessing in his own way". • the section on Cyrus' religious measures has been likened to a human rights charter. • [JN adds: after Alaric’s sack of Rome, the increasingly Christian laws were relaxed to permit pagan activities, but “by 415 the laws were back in force; and in 416 pagans were forbidden from the military, from the administration and from the judiciary.” • Augustine probably had some influence on this tightening. No general religious freedom from him!

29. Augustine: City of God[29] • Earthly Peace • the peace which we enjoy in this life ... • is rather the solace of our misery than the positive enjoyment of felicity • Our very righteousness, ... consists rather in the remission of sins than in the perfecting of virtues. • Witness the prayer of the whole city of God : “Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors.” • of all which it has been summarily said in the divine oracles, “Is not human life upon earth a temptation?” who but a proud man can presume that he so lives that he has no need to say to God, “Forgive us our debts?” • [A pretty demeaning view of Man...]

30. Augustine: City of God[30] • Heavenly Peace • as our nature shall enjoy a sound immortality and incorruption, and shall have no more vices, and as we shall experience no resistance either from ourselves or from others, • it will not be necessary that reason should rule vices which no longer exist • but God shall rule the man, and the soul shall rule the body, with a sweetness and facility suitable to the felicity of a life which is done with bondage. • this condition shall there be eternal, and we shall be assured of its eternity; and thus the peace of this blessedness and the blessedness of this peace shall be the supreme good. • [Ummm... but: what will we actually do? ... • [sing the Hallelujah Chorus over and over and over and over and ...???]

31. Augustine: City of God[31] • What’s the message? • that peace and virtue etc are not really to be found “in this life” • Very un-Aristotelian! • - would be regarded as an admission of failure by him! • Indeed a doctrine for the “humble” • - but with a potential that the humble become real trouble-makers....

32. Augustine: City of God[32] • history shows how [Rome] declined into “sanguinary seditions, social and civil wars • and so burst the bond of concord in which the health of a people consists,.. • And yet I would not on this account say either that it was not a people, or that its administration was not a republic, so long as there remains an assemblage of reasonable beings bound together by a common agreement as to the objects of love. • the city of the ungodly, which did not obey the command of God that it should offer no sacrifice save to Him alone • and which, therefore, could not give to the soul its proper command over the body, nor to the reason its just authority over the vices, is void of true justice.

33. Augustine: City of God[33] • where there is no true religion there are no true virtues. • For though the soul may seem to rule the body admirably, and the reason the vices, if the soul and reason do not themselves obey God, as God has commanded them to serve Him, they have no proper authority over the body and the vices. • For as that which gives life to the flesh is not derived from flesh, but is above it, so that which gives blessed life to man is not derived from man, but is something above him • [umm-hmmm]

34. Augustine: City of God[34] • What’s the net moral and political effect of religion?? • Moral: turns morality into a set of marching orders from on high • [this raises the question: where did the issuer of those orders get them from? • - did he just suddenly feel like ordaining peace, one fine day?? • Political: • The natural tendency is toward theocracy • The theocrat will enforce that particular theology’s version of morality • Augustine’s view is an interesting compromise: the “earthly state” does the dirty work - enforcing laws etc for the sake of peace on earth • But the real payoff is in the Hereafter • [Does this pave the way for suicide-bombers?] ... • That’s a cross religions must bear (and the rest of us, at the hands of the religious....) • Is Augustine being consistent in preaching relative tolerance and cooperation??

35. Augustine: City of God[35] • Augustine’s Christianity - is it tolerance or Quietism? • Pacifism: we don’t defend ourselves or anyone • Quietism: We put up with a lot of crap from the government because only the Hereafter really matters anyway! • deal: government protects us • -- and others who don’t “stray too far from the True Path” • as defined by us (of course!) • Where does this leave political theory?? --- • --on to Aquinas!